Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, Amazon has Alexa and Microsoft has Cortana—all positioned to help users perform their tasks in a simple manner. We take a look at some of the recent entrants in the arena.

Bixby is a voice- and touch-driven personal assistant and works almost similarly as Google Assistant but with some added useful features. (IE photo)

Smartphones are getting intelligent and, thanks to virtual assistants, are now ready to perform your daily tasks, just by listening to your command. Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, Amazon has Alexa and Microsoft has Cortana—all positioned to help users perform their tasks in a simple manner. We take a look at some of the recent entrants in the arena.

Samsung Bixby

Bixby is a voice- and touch-driven personal assistant and works almost similarly as Google Assistant but with some added useful features. What differentiates it from others is the fact that Bixby can be activated any time, even when the phone is locked, with the help of a dedicated button. Users can initiate Bixby in any app that is compatible with it and ask for help or answers that they are looking for. Bixby is built with an intelligence gathering algorithm that helps it to gather context and a basic understanding of user habits. As a result, it can try to understand what is being displayed on the screen of the smartphone and provide help accordingly. Bixby—Virtual Assistant is available with the latest Galaxy S8 device.

Panasonic Arbo

Arbo is the latest innovation coming from Panasonic. It can be your best personal friend or your secretary who can take care of your needs and help you get things done in a timely fashion. Right from the time you wake up till the time you retire to bed, Arbo can help you make all the calls you need to make and the routine you need to follow. Arbo is designed to track your usage pattern and predicatively make recommendations to you based on your personal requirements. Arbo goes a bit further towards injecting intelligence inside your schedule and it can even read your app habits and through your usage patterns, it can let you get the best out of your installed apps. On a daily basis, Arbo will have a fair amount of idea on your frequently called numbers at a particular time, thus giving you reminders at that particular time. Arbo is available with Eluga Ray Max and Eluga Ray X.

The HTC Sense Companion is now smarter and can track user’s daily pattern to suggest, for instance, if they are late for a particular appointment or when they need to recharge their device. This assistant is designed and powered by artificial intelligence so well that it can even give suggestions on how to dress up according to local weather conditions, track your personal fitness progress as well as recommend nearby restaurants that are best suited for your eating habits. HTC Sense Companion is available with HTC U11.

Zia Askari writes on communications,technology and gadgets at TelecomDrive.com